Often in crime fiction/ detective stories disability is used as a trait of the perpetrator. This is less commonly employed in the form of physical disabilities and more often is found in cases of Madness/ mental illness. Often the murderer/ culprit/ thief is portrayed as "psychotic". In these instances, the word choice is commonly incorrect or inappropriate, furthering negative portrayals and misunderstandings of psychological terms.

Claremont Graduate University

Crime fiction has a trajectory in which suspense and curiosity are raised by a mystery or problem and resolved by the close of the work. Often, the closure or solution is all the more satisfying when the mystery is more profound or the sense of intrigue raised to greater heights. Since mystery or suspense must be raised intensely, disability often plays a part in creating more mystery, suspense, or red herrings. In this way, it is employed more as a tool.

Disability and Crime Fiction

Cheyne, R. (2019). Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction. Liverpool University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvsn3pp7

Disability, Literature, Genre: Representation and Affect in Contemporary Fiction

The trajectory of crime fiction, as mentioned in the parent node, involves raised intrigue or suspense followed by a resolution and solution. Horror, however, has a trajectory in which the intrigue or suspense continues to raise until an explosive climax. Often the suspense is either never diffused entirely or is transformed into tragedy or anger during the close of the piece. For this reason, disability might be treated differently in one portion of a crime text than another (mysterious then understood) while horror often treats disability the same throughout a piece (monstrous, for example).

Disability in Crime Fiction versus Horror

One stereotypical portrayal/ archetype found within crime fiction is that of the neurodivergent detective. The Neurodivergent detective often hyperfixates on a case until it is solved and may be socially awkward or notice things that no one else does. The BBC Sherlock is sometimes cited as one such example.

The Neurodivergent Detective

Sometimes the witness is disabled within a piece of crime fiction rather than the villain or detective. Often times this includes a specific stereotype or archetype in which the witness is d/Deaf and nonverbal (mute) or otherwise struggles to communicate with others. Usually this scenario relies on the wit or understanding of the detective to creative a conduit for effective communication.

The Disabled and Nonverbal Witness

The Mad Perpetrator in Detective Fiction

It is fairly common for crime authors/ writers to make their disabled characters otherwise "normal" in ways that challenge assumption. For example, a Jeffrey Deaver's detective character Lincoln Rhyme is a quadriplegic detective who can only move a single finger, hid head, and neck but is a successful detective. He is otherwise "normal" and even idealized as he is intelligent, white, middle class, etc.

The Balancing of Disability in Crime Fiction

Often times, care work and medical care are oversimplified or portrayed poorly in crime fiction. In the Jeffrey Deaver detective texts, for example, detective Lincoln Rhyme has a caregiver that seems to work without pause, never need a day off, etc. Rhyme, in reality, would likely need more than one caregiver but such details are left out of the work.

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